Bigfoot? Nessie? No. Pin your hopes on Peyton

By Dwight CollinsColumnist

Published: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, January 22, 2014 at 12:40 a.m.

It's fun to think there is something more to one of those situations when your fascination tries to hammer home irrational points to your rational and balanced mind.
Bigfoot?
As much as people want to believe that a family of eight-foot-tall ape people are wandering around in the Pacific Northwest, I'm going to have to sit this one out until someone can produce a carcass or at least some footage that doesn't include zippers and background laughter.
The Loch Ness Monster?
Sorry, Nessie. We've come too far with sonar tracking and detection devices for me to think someone couldn't come across your blip in a 22-square-mile lake. You, too, are a delight to consider, but I think there's a better chance an elephant from some 19th-century circus once fell into Loch Ness and swam to freedom past a group of George Ballantine's best and most thirsty friends.
More recently, there have been other hard-to-believe fables that seemed exciting on the surface.
Theo Epstein's flight from the Boston Red Sox as architect of a championship ballclub a couple years back had Chicago Cubs fans dreaming of their first title in more than a century, but there are more credible Mothman stories coming out of West Virginia than the one about a championship banner waving above Wrigley Field in the stiff Chicago breeze.
Some thought the Atlanta Braves dealing for Justin Upton to put alongside his outfield brother B.J. Upton was a stroke of genius. I guess it was. When B.J. suddenly forgot how to play baseball last spring, the Braves needed every ounce of Justin's expected production.
There are no bigger ghost-chasers than those who spend the six weeks between Christmas and National Signing Day as if the very fate of their favorite program hinged on which hat every mixed-up 17-year-old was going to choose to signify a college choice. It doesn't mean it isn't an exhilarating process. It just means some of the kids you're most excited about will be some of the first to wash out of the program.
And then every once in a while you're treated to a sure thing, like the marriage of Peyton Manning to the Denver Broncos.
You weren't certain when it was going to click and produce a Super Bowl appearance, but you had to know. Now the real question will be whether or not this generation's greatest quarterback can take Denver all the way against a rough-and-tumble Seattle franchise that isn't the least bit impressed.
At least New York will provide a gorgeous fortnight of weather for this outdoor Super Bowl.
Weather fit for Bigfoot and Nessie, most likely.
RANDOM THOUGHTS: The good news is your team just acquired a two-time NBA champion center. The bad news is that player is Joel Anthony. ... The College of Central Florida's chances of repeating as state and national champion in JuCo men's basketball got better last week, when three players from 17-2 Chipola College in Marianna were arrested for eating a bag of marijuana during a traffic stop, according to police. The players, including FSU-bound forward Cinmeon Bowers (14 ppg, 9.3 rpg), have combined to average 42.5 points a game this season. Golden Corral has a better salad bar, fellas. ... You'd think a quarterback with the name “LUCK” sewn onto the back of his jersey and a horseshoe on his helmet could've done better than throwing four interceptions in an AFC playoff loss.
-----Dwight Collins can be reached at dwight.collins@ocala.com.

It's fun to think there is something more to one of those situations when your fascination tries to hammer home irrational points to your rational and balanced mind.
Bigfoot?
As much as people want to believe that a family of eight-foot-tall ape people are wandering around in the Pacific Northwest, I'm going to have to sit this one out until someone can produce a carcass or at least some footage that doesn't include zippers and background laughter.
The Loch Ness Monster?
Sorry, Nessie. We've come too far with sonar tracking and detection devices for me to think someone couldn't come across your blip in a 22-square-mile lake. You, too, are a delight to consider, but I think there's a better chance an elephant from some 19th-century circus once fell into Loch Ness and swam to freedom past a group of George Ballantine's best and most thirsty friends.
More recently, there have been other hard-to-believe fables that seemed exciting on the surface.
Theo Epstein's flight from the Boston Red Sox as architect of a championship ballclub a couple years back had Chicago Cubs fans dreaming of their first title in more than a century, but there are more credible Mothman stories coming out of West Virginia than the one about a championship banner waving above Wrigley Field in the stiff Chicago breeze.
Some thought the Atlanta Braves dealing for Justin Upton to put alongside his outfield brother B.J. Upton was a stroke of genius. I guess it was. When B.J. suddenly forgot how to play baseball last spring, the Braves needed every ounce of Justin's expected production.
There are no bigger ghost-chasers than those who spend the six weeks between Christmas and National Signing Day as if the very fate of their favorite program hinged on which hat every mixed-up 17-year-old was going to choose to signify a college choice. It doesn't mean it isn't an exhilarating process. It just means some of the kids you're most excited about will be some of the first to wash out of the program.
And then every once in a while you're treated to a sure thing, like the marriage of Peyton Manning to the Denver Broncos.
You weren't certain when it was going to click and produce a Super Bowl appearance, but you had to know. Now the real question will be whether or not this generation's greatest quarterback can take Denver all the way against a rough-and-tumble Seattle franchise that isn't the least bit impressed.
At least New York will provide a gorgeous fortnight of weather for this outdoor Super Bowl.
Weather fit for Bigfoot and Nessie, most likely.
<b>RANDOM THOUGHTS:</b> The good news is your team just acquired a two-time NBA champion center. The bad news is that player is Joel Anthony. ... The College of Central Florida's chances of repeating as state and national champion in JuCo men's basketball got better last week, when three players from 17-2 Chipola College in Marianna were arrested for eating a bag of marijuana during a traffic stop, according to police. The players, including FSU-bound forward Cinmeon Bowers (14 ppg, 9.3 rpg), have combined to average 42.5 points a game this season. Golden Corral has a better salad bar, fellas. ... You'd think a quarterback with the name “LUCK” sewn onto the back of his jersey and a horseshoe on his helmet could've done better than throwing four interceptions in an AFC playoff loss.
-----<BR>
<i>Dwight Collins can be reached at dwight.collins@ocala.com.</i>